*Meiggs, AE, pp. 62-63, doubts Thucydides' figures for 477 and 432 B.C.
Meiggs' lower sums are implausible, and his
proposed sum of 400 talents in 432 B.C. is based on fragmentary ATL in
which many of the sums are guesswork.
**Plut., Aristides 24. 3, notes tribute was raised to 1,300 talents
after the death of Pericles in 429 B.C.

*Meiggs, AE, pp. 524-39; figures of Diodorus are often doubted and reduced
to 5,000 talents (a sum inferred from Demosthenes). The siege of Potidaea
and naval operations in 432-430 B.C. reduced the reserve from 9,000 to
6,000 talents.

WAGES. In imperial Athens (475-400 B.C.), a hoplite, rower, and
laborer (free or slave) each received a daily wage of 1 Attic drachma.
In 400-320 B.C. the daily wage rose to 1.5 Attic drachmae. Craftsmen
and masons working on public projects in 447-408 B.C. received daily wages
from 2 to 2.5 drachmae. Many artisans were paid by the amount of
work. Bricklayers in 395-391 B.C. received 12 or 15 drachmae per
1,000 bricks laid; in 329-328. B.C. they received 17 to 25 drachmae for
the same amount of work. Stonecutters of public decrees received
a drachma for every fifty letters cut.

In the Athenian democracy, 6,000 jurors received each a daily wage (opsonion)
sufficient to purchase the minimum subsistence. In 460 B.C. this
was 2 obols (1/3 drachma); in 408 B.C. it was raised to 3 obols (1/2 drachma).

At the siege of Potidaea (432-429 B.C.), each hoplite received 2 drachmae
per day (one for himself, one for his servant); each cavalryman received
double this rate (Thuc. III. 17. 4). An Athenian trireme, manned
by 170 rowers and 30 officers and marines, cost 200 drachmae per day in
wages or 1 talent per month. Athens paid her citizens well.
In 420 B.C. Athens agreed to a treaty whereby Argos agreed to pay each
Athenian hoplite, archer, or peltast 3 Aeginetic obols per day and each
cavalryman 1 Aeginetic drachma, which was equivalent to only two-thirds
of their usual pay. Wages were a fraction of total military costs.
The siege of Potidaea cost Athens between 2,000 and 2,400 talents or 12
to 14.4 million drachmae (Thuc. II. 70. 2 and Isoc. XV. 113). The
total wages of the 3,000 hoplites and the sailors on the 30 triremes deployed
in this operation (984 talents or 5,904,000 drachmae) account for less
than half of total expenditures.

STATE REVENUES. In 450 B.C. Athens received an annual tribute
of 500 talents or 3 million drachmae, which was tripled to 1,500 talents
or 9 million drachmae in 425 B.C. Profits from mines, justice, customs
netted another 2,000 talents or 12 million drachmae per year. This
was only part of the wealth of Athens. It can be argued that total revenues
might have exceeded 6,000 talents (or 36 million drachmae)--an impressive
sum for a commercial city whose annual revenues might have been half of
the revenues of King Artaxerxes I (465-425 B.C.) who received in annual
tribute perhaps 12,000 talents after the losses of India, Ionia, and Egypt.

In 428 B.C. Athens levied an emergency war tax or EISPHORA on property
at 1% of assessed value. Since the tax yielded 200 talents or 1.2
million drachmae, the propertied classes of Athens were assessed at a net
worth of 20,000 talents or 120 million drachmae. In 413 B.C. Athens
abolished the tribute (phoros) in favor of a 5% customs on imports and
exports within the empire. Customs revenues annually netted 1,200
to 1,500 talents, implying a volume of commerce valued at 30,000 to 32,000
talents (180 to 192 million drachmae).

STATE EXPENDITURES In contrast to the Great King,
the Athenian democracy was committed to a high expenditures each year.
In 431 B.C., the service of 200 triremes for six months cost 800 talents
or 4.8 million drachmae. In 483-410 B..C. Athens commissioned 1,500
triremes at a cost of 15,000 talents or 90 million drachmae. In 460
B.C., Athens had to pay out in wages at least 360,000 drachmae or 60 talents
for the 180 days marked for jury service . In 408 B.C. this sum rose
to 540,000 drachmae or 90 talents. The building costs recorded in
447-425 B.C. totaled at least 48 million drachmae for the construction
of the main monuments on the Acropolis (Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of
Athena Nike, and cult statues), the Middle Walls linking the city to the
Piraeus, and the expansion of harbor facilities at the Piraeus.

PRICES AND SUBSISTENCE. The cost of wheat is the best index of
buying power. The Spartan hoplite received a generous daily ration
of 1 choenix of wheat (or 2 choenikes of barley) per day or an annual ration
of 7.5 medimnoi. An Athenian adult male of the thetic class required
less, 3/4 choenix of wheat daily, or 6 medimnoi per year (150 kilogrs.)
His grain needs (sitos) was 3/4 of minimum caloric intake. The other
50 kilograms came from oil, vegetables, and protein. A thetic family
of four required annually 15 medimnoi of wheat.

In 460-400 B.C. 1 medimnos of wheat cost 3 drachmae so that the minimum
needs of the adult thete cost annually 18 drachmae. The thetic family
of four paid 45 drachmae for annual wheat. In 400-325 B.C., 1 medimnos
of wheat averaged 5 drachmae so that the annual needs of wheat for adult
male rose to 30 drachmae and that of the family of four to 75 drachmae.
The price of wheat fluctuated seasonally. In times of famine prices
soared as high as 16 drachmae per medimnos (over three times customary
price). Xenophon (Anab. I. 15) reports that, in the market following
the army of Cyrus the Younger in 401 B.C., Greek mercenaries bought wheat
at the outrageous price of four shekels per capith, the equivalent of 5
Attic drachmae for every 2 choenikes of wheat or 120 drachmae per medimnos,
i.e. 24 times greater than customary prices.

Olive oil was the principal fat consumed, and 1 kyathos of oil (1/6
kotyle), equivalent to 1.56 fluid ounces, was the daily minimum for an
adult male. In markets, oil was prices at 1/2 obol per kotyle or
1 drachma per chous. The minimum needs of an adult male was 5 choes
priced at 5 drachmae; that of a family of four was 12.5 choes at 12.5 drachmae.

Most thetes grew a substantial portion of their needs on private or
leased land. An Attic farm of 20-40 plethera (5-10 acres or 2-4 hectares)
could sustain most thetic families.

INCOME LEVELS. The first propertied class (pentakosmedimnoi) had
annual incomes at or above 500 medimnoi of wheat (250 times the daily minimum
of an adult male). This income carried a value of 1,500 drachmae
in 460-400 B.C. The second class or cavalry (hippeis) had incomes
between 300 and 500 medimnoi or 900 to 1,500 drachmae. The third
class of hoplites (zeugitae) had annual incomes of 200 to 300 medimnoi
or 600 to 900 drachmae. The PANOPLY or the suit of hoplite armor and weapons
cost between 300 and 500 drachmae (equivalent of 1/2 to 1 year’s income
of a zeugites). In 415 B.C. Athens armed 700 thetes as hoplites for
service in Sicily at a cost of 210,000 to 350,000 drachmae (35 to 58 talents).